Cabal
Dark Fantasy Horror Supernatural Thriller Gothic Fiction Lovecraftian Horror Urban Fantasy Monsters Fiction
Clive Barker’s Cabal is the dark-fantasy novella that many readers call “the last word in modern Gothic.” Set in the hidden Canadian city of Midian—an underground refuge for the “Night Breed,” monsters who are more human than the humans who hunt them—this lean, 1988 powerhouse distills everything Barker does best: lush, erotic prose, moral reversals that make you question who the real fiends are, and set-pieces so cinematic you can almost hear the celluloid sizzle. In just 360 pages you get shape-shifters, serial-killers, necromancy, and a love story that refuses to die, all rendered in the author’s trademark velvet-and-razor style.
What makes this paperback collectible is its standalone perfection: Cabal is the uncut gem that inspired the cult film Nightbreed, yet the book is leaner, darker, and more emotionally brutal than any screen version. Barker wrote it at the peak of his Books of Blood fame, so every sentence crackles with the energy that re-defined modern horror and helped birth the term “dark fantasy.” For YA and adult readers moving beyond Stephen King, this is the gateway drug to literary horror—sophisticated enough for academics, visceral enough for splatter fans, and compassionate enough to leave you weeping for the monsters.
This particular copy is a very-good-condition English-language paperback—no cracked spine, no dog-eared corners, just the faint shelfwear that tells you it was loved once and is ready to be loved again. It slips easily into a coat pocket or weekend bag, perfect for reading under the covers with a flashlight or re-visiting every October when the leaves start to rot. Grab it now: Cabal goes out of print in paper more often than Barker’s other works, and very-good copies are already climbing in resale value.
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